English is the Lingua Franca

As English is the Lingua Franca, the English Department at Ali Institute of Education aims to enhance the language skills of the students. Various teaching methods and techniques are used to improve the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of the students. Students are not only trained in grammar but also trained in how to practice language with correct use of grammar. We aim to polish our students in language and communication that can help them improve their interaction and communication with people. We train them in language through

various carefully designed courses such as Foundation English, Functional English, Language Improvement Programmes and courses as well as ELT (English Language Teaching) that can make them proficient in English language so they can be confident enough to communicate well. We focus on making them able and confident individuals as well as teachers. The Theater Skills course and other language activities also help the students in improving their language expression and creativity. This change can be seen visibly in our trainees from the city and village areas, joining AIE as shy and hesitant when talking in English but becoming very confident in their expression and proficiency at the end of the training courses.

It is always a great experience teaching Phonology and Spellings to the students of AIE because it is usually a new subject for the students and they love discovering various phonemes in words to create new words with new sounds. It was a fun activity when, in some of my B.Ed. ELT classes and evening classes of language, I introduce the 46 phonemes to the students with examples of words, root words and prefixes/ suffixes through detailed handouts and I ask them to detect the alliterative words (words beginning with the same sounds) in those lists and then I ask them to detect and underline the root words, prefixes and suffixes – I get the students to work in pairs to arrange those selected words on charts in the form of rhyming schemes. Teaching phonology through vocabulary and spellings and merging them with rhyming schemes is always a great teaching experience for me and a fun learning experience for the students !